Tag: Foreign Film Review
No.7 Cherry Lane | 2019 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Revew
Remembrance of Things Cats: Yonfan Sketches a Rebellious Love Letter in Animated Debut
The multifaceted Yonfan returns to feature filmmaking for the first time in...
The Barefoot Emperor | 2019 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
Barefoot and Stagnant: Woodworth & Brosens Continue Their Belgian Political Satire
While one doesn’t necessarily have to be readily familiar with the 2016 film King...
Olivia (1951) | Review
Teacher Pets: Audry’s Lesbian Melodrama Reclaims the Spotlight in New Restoration
Returning to dispel the historical erasure of queer representation in cinema is Olivia, a...
If Only | 2019 Locarno Film Festival Review
Father of My Children: Elkann Siphons Lovingly from Familial Dysfunction for Debut
The holidays will always be rife for cinematic exploration of familial discord and...
The Nightingale | Review
Bloody White People: Kent Hits Hard with Brutal Revenge Trip
Jennifer Kent follows up her formidable debut The Babadook with a less inventive, but decidedly...
The Days to Come | 2019 New Horizons Intl. Film Festival Review
Becoming a We: Marques-Marcet Keeps it Real with a Micro-Drama of Love & Pregnancy
Completing a trilogy of sorts about life getting in the way...
Here’s Lookin’ at You, Visa: Petzold Posits New Fascism on Classic WWII Novel Transit | Blu-ray Review
Christian Petzold, the shining star of Germany’s Berlin School, unveiled his most provocative narrative reclamation yet with 2018’s Transit, adapted from Anna Segher’s 1942...
Our Time | Review
Love Like Poison: Reygadas Returns with Frustrating but Forthright Marital Drama
Interminable? Yes. Navel-gazing? Perhaps. But furious in its candor? Absolutely. Carlos Reygadas returns for...
La femme de mon frère | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Is There a Doctorate in the House? Chokri Skids and Skates without Moving
Moving from her award-winning short Quelqu'un d’extraordinaire (2013) debut which dealt with...
Yomeddine | Review
Natural Selection: Shawky Shackled by Straight Story
Tackling notions of identity in both a figurative and transfigurative sense, Yomeddine teeters ever so lightly into fable terrain...
Criterion Collection: Let the Sunshine In | Blu-ray Review
Claire Denis had one of her most prominent showings in over a decade with her 2017 title Let the Sunshine In, a melancholy rom...
Oleg | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Immigrant Song: Kursietis Explores a Modern Slave Trade in Sophomore Film
Latvian cinema seems on the verge of an international breakthrough, with various new directors...
Domino | Review
They All Fall Down: De Palma Dallies in Inert ISIS Thriller
It’s hard to believe Domino, the latest film from legendary director Brian De Palma...
Diamantino | Review
Politicizing Camp: Abrantes & Schmidt Post a Win with Imaginative Soccer Satire
After a decade decade working in the short experimental form, festival faves Gabriel Abrantes...
The Traitor | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Witness for the Prosecution: Bellocchio Delivers Vigorous Portrait of the Man Who Took Down the Cosa Nostra
Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio, on the verge of...
Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Dancing…Yeah: Kechiche Spins Like a Record Round in Vacuous Sequel
The French-Tunisian director who won the 2013 Palme d’Or for Blue is the Warmest Color...
Sick, Sick, Sick | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Lover, Come Back: Furtado Hearts Hemoglobin in Sinister Debut
The heart is a lonely killer in Brazilian director Alice Furtado’s apprehensive narrative debut Sick, Sick,...
Parasite | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
A Judgement in Stone: Joon ho Tackles Privilege in Black Comedy
Strident class disparities in South Korea provide Bong Joon-ho with a novel approach to...
The Orphanage | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Back in the U.S.S.R.: Sadat Goes Back to Soviet-Ruled Afghanistan in Amiable Sophomore Film
Following the success of her celebrated 2016 debut, Wolf and Sheep,...
Heroes Don’t Die | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Crimes of the Heart: Rapin Explores Mediums as Remembrance with Inquisitive Debut
The idea of reincarnation was once a virulent staple of American genre films,...
The Unknown Saint | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Gimme the Loot: Money is the Root of Good and Evil in Aljem’s Debut
Love the sinner and not the sin seems to be the...
Non-Fiction | Review
The French Publisher’s Wife: Assayas Straddles Digital Criminals and Corporate Cannibals in Playful Bon Mot
Hardly a stranger to the back room wheeling and dealing...
Quartet (1981) | Review
Of Human Bondage: Ivory Gets Art Deco Dysfunction in Underrated Rhys Adaptation
Merchant Ivory became the first major company to adapt the work of novelist...
Rafiki | Review
Let’s Be Friends: Kahiu Dares to Question Kenyan Conservatism
Social conventions always require such power and resistance that brave individuals must engage in a continuous...
High Life | Review
An Outpost of Progress: Denis Gets Daring with Esoteric Sci-Fi
Of Claire Denis’ impressive English language debut High Life, perhaps a famous line from Alien...
Boyz In The Wood | 2019 SXSW Film Festival Review Ninian Doff
Ninian Doff Goes Brogue While Delinquents Go Scot-Free
Scottish music video-director Ninian Doff offers an uneven but hilarious debut with Boyz in the Wood: a bonkers action-comedy...
Knife + Heart | Review
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key Light: Gonzalez’s Queer Giallo a Dicey Mélange
Love as an overwhelming, all-consuming fire...
Ash Is Purest White | Review
Love is Like a Stove: Zhangke Tackles Genre in Time-Spanning Romance
Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke continues to experiment in tone and form with his latest...
3 Faces | Review
Faces, Places: Panahi Provokes the Patriarchy in Quiet Hybrid Drama
Now nearly half way through his twenty-year ban from filmmaking, (a damning sentence passed down...
Woman at War | Review
Female Misbehavior: Erlingsson Explores Ecofeminism in Entertaining Character Portrait
After exploring the defining social elements between humans and their horses in his homegrown debut Of...
Climax | Review
Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough: Noe Does Sensory Deception with Latest Dark Odyssey
Come again? Enfant terrible Gaspar Noe returns to cinema of...
Transit | Review
Those Who Leave: Petzold Collapses Past and Present with Holocaust Redux
Switching things up considerably compared to his previous offerings, German auteur Christian Petzold makes...
Greta | Review
She Will Always Beat You: Huppert Get Homicidal in Jordan’s B-Thriller
There’s more than one way to depend on the kindness of strangers, including using...
Hotel by the River | Review
Heartbreak Hotel: Estrangement and Reunion Synchronize in Latest Sangsoo Slice of Life
It’s a short-lived distinction to be called the latest anything from South Korean...
Everybody Knows (Todos Lo Saben) | Review
Iran So Far Away: Farhadi Stumbles with Spanish Soap Opera
Two-time Oscar-winning Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi (A Separation; The Salesman) makes his Spanish-language debut with...
Acid | 2019 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Melt With You: Gorchilin Tracks the Apathy of Russia’s Youth in Agitated Debut
No one gives a damn about their generation until they begin to...
Daughter of Mine | Review
Miss Mom: Bispuri Challenges Family Symmetry in Captivating Sophomore Pic
With her sensory filled coming-of-age sophomore feature, Laura Bispuri navigates the sweet and sour voyage...
Dolce Fine Giornata | 2019 Sundance Film Festival Review
Under the Tuscan Sun: Borcuch Presents Compelling Intersection on Art and Political Responsibility
Polish director Jacek Borcuch travels abroad once again for his fifth feature,...
I Am Mother | 2019 Sundance Film Festival Review
They Call Me Mother: Sputore Examines What It Means to Be Human in Sci-Fi Debut
Australia’s Grant Sputore makes an impressive directorial debut with the...
Monos | 2019 Sundance Film Festival Review
Monkey See Monkey Do: Landes’ Latest a Moody, Hermetic Portrait of Guerilla Warfare
Brazil’s Alejandro Landes concocts a moody, textured exercise on child soldiers and...
The Heiresses (Las herederas) | Review
Inherit the Wind: Martinessi Explores Class and Desire in Impressive Character Study
While they seem to have outlived their best of times, the two privileged...
Pity | Review
Help Me, I’m Poor: Makridis Adds a Footnote to the Greek Cinema
Look no further than Babis Makridis’ sophomore feature, the bluntly named Pity, for...
Touch Me Not | Review
Touch All This Skin: Pintilie’s Hybrid Sexcapade Explores the Fleeting, Obscure Nature of Intimacy
With her narrative debut Touch Me Not, Romanian director Adina Pintilie...
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead | 2018 Intl. Film Festival & Awards Macao Review
New Year’s Evil: Wheatley Finds Humanity Amid Caustic Bickering
Shapeshifting his way along a varied filmography, Ben Wheatley is back after the tongue-in-cheek gunplay bonanza...
The Favourite | Review
Courtship at Court: Lanthimos Delights with 18th-century Royal Love Triangle
At Her Majesty Queen Anne’s palace, its a disheveled state of affairs. There’s an ongoing...
Cold War | Review
The Most Important Thing is to Love: Pawlikowski Delivers Beautifully Wrought, Chilly Amour Fou
Polish auteur Pawel Pawlikowski has had a curious trek to international...
ROMA | Review
Going Home Again: Cuarón Aces Return to Mexico with Autobiographical, Intimate drama
From one woman reaching the shore to another going back to it, from...
Mary Queen of Scots | Review
Two Queens Stand Before Me: Rourke’s Reticent Recapitulation of a Doomed Queen
Not since Charles Jarrott’s 1971 mounting of the infamous demise of Mary Stuart,...
The Mercy | Review
Come Sail Away: Marsh Gets Morose with Tale of Doomed Sailor
Director James Marsh tackles the tragedy of amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst in The Mercy,...
Time Share (Tiempo Compartido) | Review
Meant to Be Spent Alone: Hofmann Returns with Cynical Comedy on Privileged Facades
If hell is other people, perhaps they signify an even hotter level...
